Transactional Distance Theory refers to the pedagogical separation between the student and the teacher.
It is the “...psychological and communication space to be crossed, a space of potential misunderstanding between the inputs of instructor and those of the learner” (Moore, 1993, p. 22).
This theory takes into consideration two factors that are necessary for a high transactional distance learning which are: the structure and the interaction or dialogue. The structure represents the educational program or material that is very accommodated to the learning needs of the individuals, while the dialogue is related to the interaction between the parties.
Moore (1993) decided that the relationship between the dialogue and the structure is very important and can change according to the input of each of these factors: if the dialogue is high and the structure is low, this will result on a low transactional distance learning (TDL), if the structure is high and the dialogue is low then the TDL is high. If we need for the student to self-direct his learning, we should design with an approach where the dialogue or the interaction is lower than the structure.
In Books
Moore’s transactional distance learning theory can be a solution for many learners who do not know how to self-pace their learning. It focuses the structure of the lesson, the content, and how it is displayed for the student in a way that makes self-learning easier. If the structure is high, the student will no longer need to ask for help (low dialogue) when they work on their homework or even classwork.
Many books are following this theory to implement self-learning and to facilitate some tasks for the student to allow him to work at his pace. Moore's theory gives to the student every element he needs to work alone. The structure consists in creating short learning instances with frequent activities (daily basis), and highlighting what the student needs to know.
Moore's theory created a new perspective to write activity books for students, where they usually need constant help like in science and math books for elementary schools.
In eLearning
The role of multimedia and technology in transactional distance learning is that multimedia can make the structure higher as it provides a wide range of material: communications, videos and demonstrations. The dialogue, which might be lower than in face to face learning. Multimedia can help the instructor provide one-on-one distance courses and conduct web conferencing to support the learner. It can increase learner-to-learner interaction as well by using new technologies and apps. in all cases, the learning designer should take into consideration that whenever the dialogue is low, the transactional distance learning can be kept at a higher level using a consistent and rich structure.
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